Mental health: Awareness up, but fear, shame persist

Mental health was one of the buzzwords during the twoyear COVIDinduced lockdown or slowdown lsquoExpect tsunami of mental health problemsrsquo shouted headlines in the media to cite just one example Some experts were bullish they spoke about the upsides like growing awareness about mental health and people becoming more proactive about seeking helpMatters of the mind took centre stage as Astitva Clinic a Matungabased mental health outfit conducted its Community Outreach Programme CORP at different spots in the citymdashfrom south Mumbai to Dadar and the western suburbs over the past weekend Astitva was founded by Anagha Afreddy senior special educator Heta Shah clinical psychologist and counsellor and Vishakha N Punjani clinical psychologist and psychotherapistTeam Astitva founders and volunteers conducted the weekend workshopThe accessMorning walkers looked at the Astitva clinic setup at DadarWadalarsquos Five Gardens a table with paraphernalia like balloons and colour cards to be used by volunteers With these the Astitva staff would be playing certain games with the public understanding the mindset and trying to clear misconceptions about mental health Said Punjani ldquoBringing mental health into public spaces is about accessibility Volunteers and we founders too fanned out at Shivaji Park Dadar East Girgaon Chowpatty Bandra West and Marine Drive over two days We took mental awareness health to the public rather than wait for them to come to usrdquoThe mythThere were several misconceptions to be met headon At Shivaji Park Astitva volunteers met a woman who told them straight up that she ldquofelt like puking when she saw two women together in a lesbian relationshiprdquo ldquoWe told her this is the way some persons are but she was in denial What was worrying was that she was a nursery school teacherrdquo said Nandini Patel and Karan Bhaip and added ldquoIt was evident that she was in deep denialrdquoAlso read lsquoMental Healthcare Act has now become a necessityrsquoGame namesThe Astitva team also had an eyecatching game on the sidewalk where concepts like lsquoOCDrsquo lsquoDyslexiarsquo and lsquoInsomniarsquo were arranged in a hopscotch pattern on the ground Participants were invited to play a round of lsquohopscotchrsquo just like we did when we were kids said Afreddy and Punjani ldquoThe overall aimrdquo the founders added ldquowas to teach people that terms like these are very loosely used For instance a person who has not slept well for two days might say lsquoI have insomniarsquo That is incorrect One has to be diagnosed with a condition by a certified clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist and only then you can say that you have one of these conditions Yet these are used extremely casually in conversation or just at times to diss somebody That is what we want to highlight with this gamerdquoHop Scotch to better understand mental health conceptsBottle battleVolunteers Nandish Kuvardiya and Ruchi Mishra recalled their outreach at Bandra West ldquoWe were on Carter Road and a gentleman approached us stating that his wife was seeking help for depression He also wanted help and actually later called up the clinic for a followthrough sessionrdquo they saidVolunteers spoke about how a man who had a drinking problem told them he needed guidance or to be shown the way ldquoThe important thing is that he recognised he may have a problem rather than being in denial and then decided to address itrdquo they saidStress lessAt the Five Gardens space one witnessed a participant telling volunteers that if he saw that his friend was struggling through a problem and that it was affecting her mental health ldquoI would talk to her offer to help Yet if I finally realised that I cannot maybe tell her to seek professionalsrdquo A trio of men claimed ldquoThis is relaxdestress time on Sunday when we all walk together and prefer to keep the conversations light There was one person who used to talk about his problems during this time We asked him not to join usrdquoFrom awareness and introspection to denials and shutdowns reactions spanned the gamut Yet it was important that there was engagement and with these public workshops there was a stripping away of the intimidation or unease associated with mental health The professionals signed off ldquoPublic outreach is to send an initial message that there is no harm or nobody will judge you for talking to us as there is fear and shame still associated with mental health Despite repeated reassurances we are still told by nervy wary people lsquoWe hope this will remain confidentialrsquordquo